A man on trial for multiple counts of sexual assault told police in a recorded interview after his arrest that he squirted a cleaning liquid “that eats through nylon” at women’s legs downtown because it was a fetish.
Sean James O’Reilly faces seven counts of sexual assault related to incidents in downtown Victoria near the Bay Centre between Nov. 17, 2022, and Dec. 29, 2022.
In those incidents, women reported feeling like they had been splashed with something and then realizing their nylons were disintegrating.
O’Reilly was arrested Dec. 30, 2022, after officers reviewed video footage from two separate incidents and noticed an individual who appeared in both videos, Sgt. Brent Hilborne testified Tuesday.
Bay Centre security alerted police that O’Reilly was in the building shortly after officers told security they were looking for him.
In an interview with Hilborne that was played in court, O’Reilly said he carried the cleaning liquid in a syringe and used it to spray at women’s nylons to see the destroyed nylons.
“I spray it on their legs … I don’t mean to hurt anybody. It’s simply a look and a fetish,” he told Hilborne.
O’Reilly said he never intended to harm them and promised he wouldn’t do it again. He said he wasn’t sure why he did it.
He told Hilborne he didn’t “really look at the person” before splashing them with liquid. He sprayed them and walked away, he said.
“Please tell them that I’m super sorry and it will never happen again. I’m humiliated and it’s a non-violent thing. It just strictly has to do with pantyhose,” he said.
The women splashed with the liquid, whose identities are protected by a publication ban, testified Monday and Tuesday that they experienced a burning or prickling sensation after feeling they had been hit with a liquid.
One woman testified that when she reached down to touch the area affected, her hand was covered in a black, sticky residue, and she realized it was her tights disintegrating.
The trial continues Wednesday.
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